


Assistant Coach

by Marks



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Codependency, Fluff, Humor, M/M, These two aren't good at being separated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-16 18:51:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9285404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marks/pseuds/Marks
Summary: Now that Victor's coaching and competing, the logical thing to do is find someone who can be with Yuri at competitions when he can't. This works out with no problems whatsoever, obviously, and Yuri doesn't suffer at all.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Inside my head, these two are head-over-heels and out of their minds. Anyway, this is primarily an excuse for me to write a bunch of side characters making Yuri's life hard.

Yuri loved training with Victor in Russia, but it was good to come home for a few days before Four Continents. And nowhere felt more like home than the Ice Castle. He skated toward the boards and leaned over the side to grab a towel.

The Nishigori triplets popped up all at once.

"Hi, Yuri!"

"We got your whole routine on Mom's phone, Yuri!"

"Can we put it on YouTube, Yuri?"

Yuri made a sound that kind of went like "nyaaargghh" and skidded backward, landing on his ass. Victor was suddenly there and beaming, putting his arms around the triplets. That was when Yuri noticed that all three of the girls were in matching suits — and all of their suits matched Victor's. 

"Aren't they just the best little assistants, Yuri?" Victor gushed. 

Yuri pulled himself back to his feet. "Assistants?" 

Victor nodded. "For when I'm away," he said. "Now that I'm skating again, there are going to be times when I can't be at your competitions and I'll need a substitute."

Yuri looked from Victor to the girls and then back again. Victor was doing that thing he liked to do where the words coming out of his mouth sounded reasonable, but the words didn't match what was actually happening in front of Yuri's eyes.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Yuri said. "Alone?"

+

"Victor, six-year-old girls don't make good professional skating coaches," Yuri said, once they were outside the rink.

"No?" Victor looked confused. "Not even when there are three of them?"

Yuri laughed. He couldn't help himself; Victor was cute even when he had terrible ideas. He put his hands on either side of Victor's face and kissed him, still sort of shocked that he got to do that almost any time he wanted. "Not even then," Yuri said. "Did you even tell their parents that you planned on sending their daughters overseas?"

Victor didn't answer. That meant he hadn't.

"But an assistant coach is a good idea," Yuri said.

"It is?" Victor said. Yuri wasn't the best at reading expressions, but he thought Victor looked a little bit sad about that, though Yuri couldn't imagine why. But if he was sad, it was just a passing shadow because a second later, he was just normal Victor again. "Of course it is! I'll find someone more appropriate before you fly out to Gangneung."

"There's no rush," Yuri assured him. "Take your time."

+

Yuri flew out to South Korea by himself and felt pretty lonely on the plane. It was weird not having Victor taking up more than his fair share of the arm rest and drooling all over Yuri's sleeve while he napped, but Victor was flying out to Romania the next day for his own competition. The flight attendant apparently noticed his pathetic face and took pity on him because she gave him two extra packets of pretzels. She also included a slip of paper with her phone number written on it, which was weird.

He just crashed for the night when he got to his hotel, even though Phichit kept texting him about everything he was doing with the other skaters. Victor sent him a picture of Makkachin lying on the floor of Yuri's parents' onsen, his fuzzy face resting on his crossed paws with the caption _someone misses you_ and alternating heart and dog emojis. 

_tell makkachin i miss him too_ , Yuri sent back, with a heart and two gold ring emojis of his own.

Yuri didn't remember hotel beds being so big and empty before.

+

The next day Yuri felt determined to show Victor how well he could perform his short program, even without his coach right by his side. In a way, Victor was always by his side, and it was about time Yuri proved that to everyone. His practice time that morning had gone well, and he was already in the zone, stretching against a wall outside the locker area, earbuds in.

He was so in the zone, in fact, that when someone tapped his shoulder, he jumped a foot in the air and shrieked.

Yuri whirled around and yanked his earbuds out. A couple of the other skaters were giving him dirty looks.

"My baby!" Yuri's mother wrapped her arms around his middle and was quickly joined by Yuri's dad.

"Mom and Dad!" Yuri exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"We're your new coaches!" his mom said. "The Nishigori triplets are watching Yu-topia for the next few days, isn't that nice?"

Yuri blinked a dozen times. "Why do you people keep putting six-year-olds in charge of things?" 

"Oi, Yuri, are there going to be any idol groups at this thing?" Mari was standing a foot away with her arms crossed. She held an unlit cigarette in one hand.

"Are you my coach, too?" Yuri asked incredulously.

Mari nodded. "Victor said three's a charm," she said. "I don't know about that, but I don't say no to an all-expenses-paid vacation."

"We don't know much about coaching, but we promised we'd do our best," Yuri's father said, clapping him on the shoulder. Then he leaned in closer to Yuri. "Uh, how do we do our best?"

Yuri gave him a wobbly smile. "Just be yourselves."

His family was very good at cheering for him, even though Mari didn't totally understand why Yurio and Christophe weren't at Four Continents and was having trouble disguising her disappointment over that. Yuri did the best he'd ever done in a short program without Victor there, and his parents gave him the biggest hugs at the kiss-and-cry.

"I'm really glad we're here, Yuri," his mother told him. "But I don't think we're being very helpful."

She was right, but Yuri wasn't about to say that. "Just wave and smile for the cameras, Mom." His mother looked startled to be on camera and started fluffing her hair, but then stopped and smiled and waved. The audience cheered for her until Seung Gil skated out onto the ice and the hometown crowd went wild for him instead.

+

That night Victor and Yuri Skyped.

"Victor, it's great that my parents get to see one of my competitions in person," Yuri said. "Thank you for inviting them. But they can't be my coaches when you're not here."

That same shadow as before passed over Victor's face as before, quickly replaced by surprise. "Oh? Why not?"

"Well, they can't keep leaving the onsen alone. Also, my mother called my quadruple toe loop my toe hoop, and my dad said all the spinny stuff looked very nice. I'm glad they're proud of me, but they can't _help_. When we're back in St. Petersburg, why don't we think of someone toget—"

"I have the perfect person!" Victor interrupted. "Leave everything to me."

"Okay," Yuri said. "If you say so."

"Great. Now, I just watched your short program from today. There's so much you have to work on —"

+

When Yuri got to the rink his first day back in Russia, Yurio was waiting for him at the door, dressed in an impeccably tailored three-piece suit.

"Oh, for god's sake," Yuri muttered under his breath.

"No gods for pigs!" Yurio announced. He blew a whistle he'd produced from somewhere and cracked his knuckles gleefully. "Get on the ice so I can finally whip you into shape."

"Victor!"

+

"What is going on with you?" Yuri asked Victor a minute later, manhandling him into a dark corner. He'd just escaped Yurio announcing that he was going to break Yuri down like a butcher.

Victor uncharacteristically refused to meet Yuri's eyes. 

"Did I do something to make you angry? Is that why you're not taking finding an assistant coach for me seriously?" Yuri asked. Panic rose up in his throat, and his old friend anxiety started rolling around in his gut. He grabbed Victor's arms and shook him a little. "Please tell me!"

"No," Victor said, still looking down. Two spots of color were staining his cheeks pink, which meant he was embarrassed. Yuri thought it was cute, which embarrassed _him_. "You didn't do anything. It's me."

Yuri was now embarrassed and confused. "You?"

Victor finally lifted his head. "Yes. I know you need a coach with you at competitions, and I know that assistant coaches can be a great help. Yakov has plenty here who help him train. But I thought — I thought that if I found you a coach who could be there for you all of the time, not just part of the time, then you'd realize how impossible our situation is."

Yuri laughed and threw his arms around Victor's neck. "You think I don't already know how impossible we are?" he asked, his lips against Victor's ear. "I already know. But you're my coach till I retire, remember? I don't want anyone else. I'm _never_ going to want anyone else."

He pulled back then, only to get pulled back in when Victor kissed him hard. It nearly knocked Yuri off of his feet, but then again, Victor often had that effect on him.

"I'll find someone for real this time," Victor promised Yuri, once they came back up for air. "In fact, I know exactly who to ask. It's the person I should have asked in the first place."

+

Two weeks later, Yuri and Victor met Minako at the airport. They were holding a banner with her name on it, and both did a little pirouette in greeting. She clapped for them, and they took a bow.

"Are you really okay being just my assistant coach, Minako-sensei?" Yuri asked her, after they'd claimed her bags and were walking out. 

Minako laughed. "Of course I am. I'm a dancer, not a skater, even though I know everything you do like the back of my hand," she said. "Besides, if I wanted to be your head coach, I could have done that ten years ago. But who wants to waste the last part of their twenties coaching neurotic ice skaters?"

Victor coughed indignantly at that, and Yuri cracked up.

"I'm so glad you agreed, Minako," Victor said, once his coughing fit passed. "You'll really help free me up for my training. And, you know, maybe with you here, if I want to coach someone other than Yuri, I can do that now."

Yuri tripped over nothing. 

" _WHAT_?"


End file.
